1979 BMW E12

[BM-Jonny]

Another update...

I removed the brake booster/master cylinder assembly, as well as the wheel cylinders to have them checked and serviced...



Returned and refitted, then brakes bled.


I had already fitted the one drum when I took this pic...

I then proceeded to remove some clutter from my gargae and so built the front end back up - temporarily.

[BM-Jonny]

In my quest to find someone willing to work on ‘project’ cars I contacted a friend of mine who owns a few Triumph Spitfires which need the odd bit of maintenance now and then - he then recommended Steven, who seems to know a lot about a lot of things including old cars and tuning carbs etc. He was very quick  to come round and have a look and put it down to a few small things which were quick enough to resolve -New coil ( Bosch blue coil) fitted, the old (new) NGK suppressors refitted and new rotor was also fitted. Turns out the dizzy cap was 180 deg out too, so with that rectified and the ATF topped up it was time for a test drive.

[ttautocentres1]

Hi, I have a BMW e12 1979 right hand drive automatic, looks the same as yours, I'm looking for a complete brake servo as mine is completely missing from the car, I would really apricate if you can send me any contacts from where I can get this part you can mail me on ;-
[e-mail]

many thanks Indi.

 

[BM-Jonny]

Indi, Pm'd...

Time to bring the work done up to date again here. I didnt take many pictures over the last few months, too many niggly jobs to tackle.

Jobs done:
Odometer gear replaced.
Checkup before roadworthy, set timing and adjust brakes.
Steering Wheel repaired.
Tidied up interior, door handles fitted
Window washer fitted and serviced – not tested
Closed up the rusty holes in door skin
Tidied up engine bay, relocated some harnasses
New exhaust fitted
Drum brakes got new pads - finally

Roadworthy test – not passed,
Hole in seat marked as observation, not sure what that means exactly but they weren't happy with it...
Inner control arm bushes torn(the only bushes not replaced when all others were done!)
Rear brakes not up to spec, brake pedal rubber also worn

Repairs:
Off to the brake center brakes checked.
Not happy with “specialists” work - Brakes adjusted at home, found cable out of guide by the handbrake lever inside car…
Front left seat, seat cover fitted for the sake of the test
Control arm bushes replaced
Brake pedal rubber ordered & fitted
Window washer system tested, more servicing
Roadworthy retested, Status: Serviceable

Road testing started!
250km done :-
Oil spray in engine bay noticed after a long day of driving over 100kms, as well as loud whine from engine.
Not happy with gear changes, gearbox hesitates to switch into 3rd gear, only when reducing throttle input she changes over. Gear changes also very harsh.
2yr old Vacuum pipes were cracking – replaced all with different brand.
New oil cap ordered as the old was not original bmw part and the most likely culprit for oil spray.
Whining noise traced to inlet manifold and carb, made a new thicker gasket – whining eliminated.
Mechanic had a look at gearbox issue, made adjustments – gear changes almost unnoticed now. #Winning.

Patch work before roadworthy, its temporary...

Holes...

Welded some metal in and filled up.




Out with the old and in with the new






Washer pump serviced


Roadworthied


Next issues on the horizon,
Excessive play on steering wheel, bush in steering column to be replaced.
New Alternator to be sourced to solve alignment issue on fan belt.
Fuse box needs a new lid and wiring needs to be tidied up.
Headlights need restoration
Tail lights need new lenses.
Blower fan controls need tlc.

And so the list goes on.

[rblote]

That ute/pick up/bakkie in the back ground has an interesting canopy on it. Anyway I really like your Bimma. It's a great classic model
and they go sooo well. Our 528 of the same vintage in baby poo green was a great car to drive.
Good luck with it

[BM-Jonny]

Thanks, yep that's a Ford Bantam mid 90's shape to 2002. That specific one is a traffic department vehicle if I'm not mistaken. I used to have one just like it, my first car... So bummed I sold it, they are really practical with the low load bin and it had plenty of oomph with the 1600 motor.

The e12's are nice hey, I often regret spending so much cash on this car but not having had much pleasure driving it yet. To date now only about 400 kms, but its starting to become a bit more comfortable with every drive, still a manual gearbox would have made more sense I think.

pic below of my Bantam many years ago.

[BM-Jonny]

Its been a while since I've updated things here...



Carrying on from where I left off, the only item on the last list that has seen attention was the excessive play on the steering wheel. I ordered a new bush from BMW... The reason for the excessive play can clearly be seen in the top left pic.





After that was sorted, I just tried to get some mileage on the car to run the motor in to start easing up a bit. In the process I found another well experienced mechanic who had lots of wisdom to share.

With my first visit I had two issues which needed attention:

1.The gearbox wasn’t changing over unless I back off on the accelerator.

2. There was also a loud whine coming from the area of the intake manifold.

The gear change issue had to do with the kickdown linkage – unfortunately I cant remember the specifics.

The whine turned out to be suction. The bottom surface of the carb wasn't a 100% flat. Luckily this was easily remedied with a thicker gasket.

Another few hundred kilometers later, I still wasn't happy with the fuel economy and engine felt like it was hesitating, like its not getting fuel or getting flooded when you try and accelerate.

In the mean time I had ordered two more cosmetic bits from a 2nd-hand dealer in Cape Town:




These are just crazy expensive, maybe one day when the paint and everything is all done Ill consider a new grille if there are any available at that stage still!

November last year saw the first 1000kms done and so it was time to do the first service. I took the car back to my newly found local specialist to do that, see to the hesitation and fit the new (old) original style valve cover. It still needs some TLC but time is often a problem nowadays.

After I got the car back from service with new valve cover fitted, and different jets fitted to the carb I noticed a small fuel leak...

Ill make a note here of the new jet sizes when and if I find where I noted it down. The engine seems to be running much smoother now though, so so far its a win.




New oil cap,valve cover and new capnuts to tidy things up...

Funny how things go but in Feb this year my dad was in need of some temporary transport (much like I was 10 years ago and ended up with this car), so I lent him the car for a few months, then lockdown happened. The car is still with him in the Karoo, (again!) but I’m planning a trip in September to go and retrieve it.

Looking at the to-do lists and goals set very early in this thread it seems “Phase 1 – driving and roadworthied” is now done and dusted. I've learned loads so far and hopefully from here on out the driving pleasures will start outweighing the mechanical headaches.

That's all for now.
J

[mattTR6]

Just read the thread from start to finish – glad you're still persevering!

I do like an old BMW. This has reminded me of an E21 316 that I owned back in 2010. A lovely, lovely example and relatively nippy with its 1.6-litre M10, if not a bit under geared for 'faster' motorway cruising.

Matt

[BM-Jonny]

Thanks Matt,

Yes hanging in there, it certainly is a long term relationship.

I really like the colour of that E21, it does look like very neat example. I am also having doubts about going all out on the old 3 speed automatic, not sure why I did that. A 4-speed manual definitely is starting to look attractive, but I do wonder if there aren't any other more modern options for faster highway cruizing. From about 90km/h up the 3 speed doesn't really sound like it wants to give any more go. That's a consideration for a few years from now though, till then the auto will have to do.

J 

[BM-Jonny]

May 2023 and back at it.
As most of us try to forget the last three years, life carries on... I was out of my job, started farming, stopped farming and now I am back at work again doing what I do best. With the limited time and finances to spend on my hobby over the last few years and also being put back financially to the point where I had to sell my usual daily drive it was up to the old bimmer to get me around from time to time so there has been at least some good that has come from it all. I have now put around 4000km on the car since starting the rebuild process and its been a pleasure all the way other than the price of fuel and the poor gas mileage I’ve been getting. (16L/100km)
A few small jobs were done on the car in the mean time so a few posts to follow then of what’s been happening…

[BM-Jonny]

November 2020

This was a spin off from the previous altenator bush effort. I decided to ditch the old alternator which clearly wasn’t the original anyway.
After reading through the Zeebuck website link I went out looking for a replacement alternator and found a suitable 80Amp unit out of a 1983 320i


www.zeebuck.com/bimmers/bmvseite/
A few things to work out then to fit this new alternator;

I welded up a very crude bracket at the time to just try and get the pulleys aligned because neither of the brackets I have did that. As we all know temporary fixes often turn into more permanent solutions and here we are almost 3 yrs later... Anyway, the original bracket on my engine is secured by a really long bolt that inserts from the front of the engine and to remove the bracket one needs to first remove the fan/radiator or just the pulley - I don't remember so well anymore but  its a job. I made my bracket with a slot on the bottom mounting hole instead so that I don't have to repeat this whole process every time I want to remove the alternator or bracket for cleaning etc… I'll either get a custom bracket made up or revisit using the bracket that came with it. Hopefully I can get the alternator cleaned up in the next few weeks to wrap up this chapter.

[BM-Jonny]

Prop shaft vibration – 



So in early 2021 I started driving the car more frequently and the first annoyance was the vibration which started getting worse with every drive. Upon investigation I found a nut missing on the front end of the drive shaft guibo…




The center bearing also needed replacement and so off came the drive shaft. I was unable to remove the center bearing myself but thought it best to send the drive shaft to get checked and balanced anyway. So with new cv’s, center bearing and flange fitted it could go back on the car.




No more vibration.




Valve cover -

In the mean time I also had this done, painted with 2k diamond black

[BM-Jonny]

More progress, June 2022 -


Blower motor cleaned up, refitted.



A minor job but still important, it was super dusty in there and it was bugging me that the surface rust on the cover plate (where the hood rubber rubs) - was adorning the engine bay. I removed it and the blower, cleaned it all up and gave it a quick dressing of matt black before closing it up again.


Electronic ignition fitted -






It was mentioned at one point that there is too much play on the distributor (which meant servicing or replacement) and that carb tuning cannot be done properly unless the timing was set more accurately. I was getting quite annoyed by the fact that the car always stinks of fuel even after all that has been done. I thought it good to start with the timing first so I opted for a replacement and went with the 123 Ignition distributor. I have programmed a few curves for the 123 and it definitely has made a huge improvement on idle and performance on the whole. The heavy fuel smell is still there unfortunately and the fuel economy is rubbish. My next thoughts to remedy that is to check fuel pressure and float levels in the carb and if that’s good I’ll start educating myself more on the basics of carb tuning. Perhaps a fuel pressure regulator and return line back to the tank is a solution but more education needed here too.



One afternoon while checking the rocker clearances the new valve cover could finally go on as well so now the picture is starting to come together slowly. With that all now sorted the engine sounds and performs a lot better – albeit the constant smell of fuel.

[BM-Jonny]

I also did this more recently…




After more frequent driving I couldn’t help but feel that the car could do with a bit less body roll in the corners. Now I'm obviously no expert on the dynamics of body roll and how over and understeer characteristics are affected by the relationship between all the suspension components but in my simplified way of thinking about these topics, a bit of rigidity can only help right? The car has always felt somewhat wobbly in the turns - so I picked these up from a friend a few years ago.

Front antiroll bar off a M535i (or that's what the label indicated anyway)


Rear anti roll bar ( the bottom of the range e12's didn't come out with these as standard)


and fitted.




The difference is noticeable in the turns, the car feels much more planted. Somehow the grandad seats lack of support while cornering seems to stand out a bit more.

2mm Difference in thickness of the front antiroll bar doesn't sound like much but when you hold the two side by side its quite substantial.


So these measure 16mm in the rear and 24mm for the front now. Definitely a huge improvement over none in the rear and 22mm front that the car came with originally. I’m quite pleased with that.

[BM-Jonny]

Some more light work completed in the last few months.

No expensive bits bought or big body shop exercises just yet though.

I have continued cleaning the grille - with all the patch paint that this car has endured over the years there is a lot of overspray on the trim, especially on the grille. I had previously completed the one side of the grille so I thought id better get the other side to match. I used thinners and a rag and rubbed till shiny, now the dull plastic and the paint overspray is mostly gone.

Removed, 




Cleaned up & refitted


The driver’s door was annoying me too. The hinge catch was not catching the door on opening. Seeing as I had already stripped the golden doors I just cleaned and fitted that so long. It's amazing how many little things you find to fix once you start driving more, long term I guess that’s called refining and is what preserves these cars.

Catch comparison


Fitted


I think that’s mostly it for the work done since 2020. Its nothing too major but it is still progress. I continue to enjoy tackling the projects little by little with big ambition and I now have a better picture in mind of where I’m heading with this so that is enough to keep me going.


I think the first phase of the project as set out before is mostly done now –

The engine is back in the car, it runs and drives fairly well, most essential mechanical issues are sorted.

A few minor niggles remain but that should come right as the process continues.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So, I think we are positively into Phase two now.


The main goals are to replace and upgrade components where necessary and start the prep work on the body work before we can move to the third and final phase of the build.



New thoughts

Carb upgrade on the horizon - I have pretty much settled on the single Weber DCOE 45 and Lynx manifold
Aircon upgrade/install - The car used to have an a/c, I still have some components except for the expensive ones! The BluntTech bracket, Sanden 508 compressor and a condenser looks to be what's needed, possibly some new hoses if mine are found to be leaky.
Power steering - A bit more research needed here.

Then once that's done I'd like to;


Source a 5 speed gearbox and do a manual conversion

Engine work – Up the compression and fit a cam that is more suited to fast road car use.

Seats need to be replaced, am hoping to find e28 recarros or e39 sports seats

Metal work is starting to move up on the priority list



That is a rough plan with some nice to haves. The reality will no doubt be different so lets see how we get on with this going forward.

[BM-Jonny]

So, as it goes a few more months have passed since being on here but this time at least not without progress. A lot has happened since August. In short:

Alternator bracket solution - in progress
Stink of petrol and consumption issue addressed
Yearly oil change service - all but brake fluid and coolant for good reason
Tappets adjusted - very satisfying

Drove the car lots for one week at the end of September because the other transport I had was otherwise occupied. This was a great week of driving and enjoying the work that has already gone into this to get it back on the road. Unfortunately the aesthetic appeal was sorely lacking and then...

Dropped a side shaft - embarrassing
Indicators stopped working - resolved
Steering clunk - being addressed


This all led me to where we are now. I changed my mind about how I'm going about this project. The whole Idea of working in three phases made a lot of sense at the time of starting this build. Now however I'm actually seeing the work I've done getting old before my eyes and good work being undone because its taking so long to get everything just the way I want it. Following a conversation with my neighbour to just get it painted and then at least enjoy the car whilst improving it, I decided that he was right. Lets bite the bullet!

But first a few short updates...

[BM-Jonny]

This also ended up in my driveway in August. My grandfathers 1983 W123 230e which has been garaged for most of its life has now been passed on to me.



It will definitely need some TLC, but that'll get its own thread at some point.

Back to the BMW for now...

[BM-Jonny]

I have yet to refurb the 83 320i 80 Amp alternator but in good time. At least now I have made some progress on getting it to fit better. My friend Alistair is helping me out with some engineering skills to get a bracket put together to keep the alternator aligned nicely with the pulleys. We've opted to make it out of 10mm steel, laser cut individual parts which can then be welded together. This should eliminate the need for the gussets in the original part. It'll be heavy but more than strong enough. This drawing still needed to be dimensioned properly so that's why it looks a bit bulky.

[BM-Jonny]

Fuel consumption and stink;

After much internet based research I decided that fuel pressure has to be the culprit. The fuel pump I installed a few years ago was surley putting out too much fuel however Ive never liked the idea of a noisy electric fuel pump. Now however I think in terms of keeping the engine bay looking more BMW it may have been the better route to go. Be that as it may, I settled on a malpassi filter king regualtor with filter.



I bought a pressure gauge and plumbed it in to confirm my suspicions before installing the FPR and to no surprise, the fuel pressure was way too high!


I flipped this bracket around to make space for the FPR but its still quite crude, though it'll do for now.

Webers only require between 2.5 and 3 Psi but this pump was delivering almost double that at 5.2 Psi. I have a pic somewhere but cant find it now...

So I tweaked the pressure to 2.7 Psi - with an instantly noticeable difference. Smoother idling, no more fuel stink, much improved performance. I wont be surprised if the fuel economy is way better too but I couldn't help but drive with a slightly heavy foot for the first while because the car is just so much more responsive.




Another good result. Finally.

[BM-Jonny]

Tappet adjustment,

Did these because I think the last time they were done it was set at 0,25 mm... After reading up on it myself I realised that they could be quieter still so I set off to do it on my own and set them to 0.20mm...

After 3 attempts, I finally got them all set just right. Initially I started at 0,18mm but then on subsequent rounds I ended up going for 0.20mm. Its quite a fiddly job and I kept overtightening the eccentric (not the fastener) so the feeler gauge got stuck, it was either too tight or too loose but after some practice I got the hang of it.

Good thing I tackled this because in the process I felt that one of the fasteners was actually stripped - so I opted to replace it with some spares I had lying around.





Happy with my first attempt at brain surgery.